Reassurance In Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman

The northern colonies consisted of Massachusetts, Rhode Island. Connecticut, and New Hampshire. They had many natural resources such as fish, lumber, and fur.  These helped the colonist trade. This region’s economy was primarily based off of fishing and shipbuilding due to the act they were near water and did not have arable soil. Most of the settlers who ran from religious persecution and settled here were puritans.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Biff Loman silently questions his ability to fulfill his father’s wishes. His father, Willie Loman, holds high expectations for Biff’s future and constantly brags to others about how successful Biff will be. Out of respect for his father, Biff conforms to the path that Willie has planned for him. In the beginning, Willie lives vicariously through his son, Biff, who has no choice but to conform in order to preserve father-son respect. However, when the mutual respect that his father holds so dear dissolves, Biff’s concealed questions expand their influence from his thoughts to his actions as Biff becomes his own man.

He reminisces about his business trips to Boston where he would return home with large amounts of money from profitable sales. He has flashbacks to when Biff was in high school. “Remember how they used to follow him around in high school? When he smiled at one of them their faces lit up. When he walked down the street..”

His stubbornness prevents him from finding out who he truly is, and accepting Biff for who he truly

Biff recounts to Happy what occurred as he attempted to ask Bill Oliver, his old boss, for a loan to begin the brothers’ new business of selling sporting goods. Biff is under the impression he was a successful salesman for Oliver. Though once he meets Oliver, Biff realizes he was not a salesman, but merely a shipping clerk for Oliver. Biff abruptly realizes he has been lying to himself “for fifteen years” as he was

Biff and Happy idolized their father when they were young. The stories they were told made them picture their father as a popular, successful, well-known salesman. As Biff grew up, he found himself being told things about his father like "A salesman has to dream, it comes with the territory." At the end of the story when Linda says they we free, Biff is free to realize

(93). He thinks about to the day to figure out if he did something wrong, but does not figure out that he never took the blame. Not taking the blame for the affair, ruins Biff’s motivation to become successful in his

Richard J. Foster states, "Biff, who in the play as an amplification or reflection of Willy's problems, has

Biff came back home this spring, because he didn't know what he was doing with his life. Willy has mood swings and sometimes thinks very highly of Biff sometimes but other times he hates him. The day he came home Willy yelled at him, and because Biff admires his dad, he was depressed. He later reveals to Happy, after their double date, that all he wants is to work on a farm,

Happy’s self-delusions come from wanting to exceed his father’s expectations in hopes that one day his father would approve. Since Happy had always listened to his father’s over exaggerated stories it is possible that he himself learned to over exaggerate his own so that he could appear well-off and successful. One of Happy’s self-delusions is portraying that he is successful in his job, he claims to be the assistant buyer but in reality he is the assistant to the assistant “You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?” (pg.131).

While Biff is in some ways desperate to impress his father, he is also conscious about the fact that Willy has failed his attempt to be successful in his career. He considers his dad’s dreams materialistic and unreachable. As a matter of fact, in the Requiem, even after his father’s death, Biff says: “He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong.” Unlike Happy and Willy, Biff is self-aware and values facts; Willy never was a successful salesman and he never wanted to face the truth. On the other hand, Biff is conscious about his failures and the weaknesses of his personality. During an argument with his father, Biff admits that his dad made him “so arrogant as a boy” that now he just can’t handle taking

Willy’s perseverance to direct Biff into success has resulted to Biff’s desperate acts to earn praise from his father. However, Biff’s dishonest acts of stealing are often justified by Willy through disregard and excuse, even expressing that the “Coach will probably congratulate [Biff] for [his] initiative”. Instead of correcting his mistakes, Willy continuously expresses his belief of Biff’s predetermined success as a result of being attractive and well-liked. These acts effectively exemplifies Biff’s adherence to self-deception as he imagines himself as an important figure in other people’s lives. It can be seen that his belief of being destined for success prevents him from allowing himself recognize the destruction it brings. As a result, Biff has allowed how Willy views him become how he perceives himself. This self-deception has not only affected the actions in his childhood but as well as his decisions when finding his role in the workplace. As stated above, Willy’s consistent beliefs of his son’s predestined success results to Biff’s immense confidence in himself. However, this confidence have provided him a false perception of himself as he struggle to keep a stable job and even faces imprisonment. It can be seen that Biff’s lack of self-perception and compliance to ideals of Willy has only allowed him to restrain and prevent him from recognizing the difference between illusion and reality resulting in the lack of his

On the other hand, Willy is also emotionally involved with Biff because his son’s success of failure is his own. By becoming rich and influential, the handsome, personable Biff was slated to provide his own modest advancement. By making his fortune in the business world, Biff would prove that Willy had been right in turning down

In the play Death of a Salesman, the author investigates human nature and represents his main character as a person whose dissatisfaction with his own life leads to his tragic end. The plot of

Biff’s trouble with seeking the truth about himself is a development that is seen from the past and present parts of the play. This adversity was due to the fact he assumed no values of his own, but accepted those of Willys personal attractiveness and being well liked. This concept of himself is discouraged when he went to visit Billy Oliver for a business proposition and had failed. Biff had said, “I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been”. Here Biff is coming to terms with who he is, developing a different and mature mindset. The lie wasn't only about how he perceived himself, but of how others perceived him; an idea of what he aspired to be influenced by his father.